How to Build Android Apps with Kotlin: A practical guide to developing, testing, and publishing your first Android apps

Unleash the power of Android programming to build scalable and reliable apps using industry best practices

Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Key Features

• Build apps with Kotlin, Google's preferred programming language for Android development
• Unlock solutions to development challenges with guidance from experienced Android professionals
• Improve your apps by adding valuable features that make use of advanced functionality

Book Description

Looking to kick-start your app development journey with Android 13, but don't know where to start? How to Build Android Apps with Kotlin is a comprehensive guide that will help jump-start your Android development practice.

This book starts with the fundamentals of app development, enabling you to utilize Android Studio and Kotlin to get started with building Android projects. You'll learn how to create apps and run them on virtual devices through guided exercises. Progressing through the chapters, you'll delve into Android's RecyclerView to make the most of lists, images, and maps, and see how to fetch data from a web service.

You'll also get to grips with testing, learning how to keep your architecture clean, understanding how to persist data, and gaining basic knowledge of the dependency injection pattern. Finally, you'll see how to publish your apps on the Google Play store.

You'll work on realistic projects that are split up into bitesize exercises and activities, allowing you to challenge yourself in an enjoyable and attainable way. You'll build apps to create quizzes, read news articles, check weather reports, store recipes, retrieve movie information, and remind you where you parked your car.

By the end of this book, you'll have the skills and confidence to build your own creative Android applications using Kotlin.

What you will learn

• Create maintainable and scalable apps using Kotlin
• Understand the Android app development lifecycle
• Simplify app development with Google architecture components
• Use standard libraries for dependency injection and data parsing
• Apply the repository pattern to retrieve data from outside sources
• Build user interfaces using Jetpack Compose
• Explore Android asynchronous programming with Coroutines and the Flow API
• Publish your app on the Google Play store

Who this book is for

If you want to build Android applications using Kotlin but are unsure of how and where to begin, then this book is for you. To easily grasp the concepts in this book, a basic understanding of Kotlin, or experience in a similar programming language is a must.

Table of Contents

1. Creating Your First App
2. Building User Screen Flows
3. Developing the UI with Fragments
4. Building App Navigation
5. Essential Libraries: Retrofit, Moshi, and Glide
6. Adding and Interacting with RecyclerView
7. Android Permissions and Google Maps
8. Services, WorkManager, and Notifications
9. Building User Interfaces Using Jetpack Compose
10. Unit Tests and Integration Tests with JUnit, Mockito, and Espresso
11. Android Architecture Components
12. Persisting Data
13. Dependency Injection with Dagger, Hilt, and Koin
14. Coroutines and Flow
15. Architecture Patterns
16. Animations and Transitions with CoordinatorLayout and MotionLayout
17. Launching Your App on Google Play

Alex Forrester is an experienced software developer with more than 20 years of experience in mobile, web development, and content management systems. He has been working with Android for over 8 years, creating flagship apps for blue-chip companies across a broad range of industries at Sky, The Automobile Association, HSBC, The Discovery Channel, and O2. Alex lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and daughter. When he’s not developing, he likes rugby and running in the Chiltern hills.

Eran Boudjnah is a developer with over 20 years of experience in developing desktop applications, websites, interactive attractions, and mobile applications. He has been working with Android for about 7 years, developing apps and leading mobile teams for a wide range of clients, from start-ups (JustEat) to large-scale companies (Sky) and conglomerates. He is passionate about board games (with a modest collection of a few hundred games) and has a Transformers collection he’s quite proud of. Eran lives in North London with Lea, his wife.

Alexandru Dumbravan has been an Android Developer since 2011 and worked across a variety of Android applications which contained features such as messaging, voice calls, file management, and location. He continues to broaden his development skills while working in London for a popular fintech company.

Jomar Tigcal is an Android developer with over 10 years of experience in mobile and software development. He worked on various stages of app development for small startups to large companies. Jomar has also given talks and conducted training and workshops on Android. In his free time, he likes running and reading. He lives in Vancouver, Canada with his wife Celine.